My Local Charity of The Week is Swindon Guide Dogs. The main aim of this excellent local charity is to make guide dogs available to people suffering from sight loss, at no cost to themselves.
The charity pays for dog food and vet bills for each dog. This makes having a guide dog affordable to anyone in need, from all walks of life. The only cost for a person qualifying with a new dog is 50p to pay for the legal transfer of ownership from the charity to the newly qualified guide dog owner (GDO) and the owner can then claim the 50p back when the dog retires!
It costs £8 a day to support a local partnership within our community, which is just under £3,000 per dog, per year and there are approximately 5,000 guide dog owners in the UK. This is all down to members of the public generously donating to the charity.
Puppy Raisers are desperately needed all over the UK, these are volunteers that take a puppy at around seven weeks old and stay with them until around fourteen months old, training the puppy in basic commands and helping them to socialise within the local community, taking them into supermarkets, on buses and trains, etc to prepare them to become a working guide dog.
Swindon Guide Dogs are holding a Charity Coffee Morning on Saturday 26th November between 10am – 12noon at The Crown Inn, Stratton. They will also be holding a raffle at the event, as well as selling Guide Dog goods including puppy calendars, Christmas cards, soft toys, and other items, which are ideal for Christmas gifts. You can follow Swindon Guide Dogs on Twitter https://twitter.com/fletcas and Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/Swindon-Fundraising-Group-For-Guide-Dogs-169103016440564
